Airports: No longer the most important new buildings of the 21st century?

6th November 2017

Flicking through a recent Architect’s Journal, an article grabbed my interest, “Pascall & Watson reveal new images of £344m London City Airport expansion.” This then takes me back to my final year of studies as I took on the task of designing one, well, a STOL Airport (short take-off and Landing) based in the River Humber.

London City Airport is now 30 years old and to mark the occasion these proposals were unveiled to mark this anniversary. This will be the first digital air traffic control tower. The scheme has come in for criticism again, environmental and housing concerns, even though the scheme has been rubber stamped by both chancellor Phillip Hammond and the transport secretary Mr Christopher Grayling over 18 months ago.

Thinking about how things have moved on since my studies, this also led me to research into information regarding Terminal 5 at Heathrow and the addition of a new runway. With the forecast of London’s airports to be full by the mid-2030s, Heathrow is said to be already operating at capacity and Gatwick at capacity during peak times.

It turns out that the public consultation on the planned third runway at Heathrow has been reopened due to new evidence submitted by the Department of Transport on new noise analysis and air quality plan, any concerns from the public need to be forwarded to the Department for transport as the public consultation ends on 19 December.

These series of fresh reports look into the impact of expanding the west London hub, including an updated noise analysis and a new air quality plan, however, the government’s sustainability appraisal expects these plans to have a negative effect on air quality, noise and biodiversity. It also says that the Gatwick second runway scheme would cause less damage than either of the potential schemes at Heathrow. The plans will have to mitigate against any significant deterioration in air quality or the whole scheme could be thrown into jeopardy. This will probably leave the government with the dilemma of either being framed as “anti-business” if it does not act to address capacity, or anti-environment if it goes ahead with expansion and will also undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% on 1990 levels by 2050, as legislated by the Climate Change Act.

A statement made in The Guardian stated that despite the new evidence, Chris Grayling insisted the case for expanding Heathrow was as strong as ever.

“This is an important consultation and I encourage everybody to get involved across the UK,” the transport secretary said.

The DfT insisted it is on track to publish final proposals for expansion in the first half of 2018 for a vote in parliament. If approved, Heathrow will submit a planning application and consult with local communities on detailed proposals.

Cait Hewitt, the deputy director of campaign group the Aviation Environment Federation, claimed the “scale of this reconsultation” showed that the government’s case for Heathrow expansion was unconvincing.

She said: “It’s difficult to see how this new information can avoid delaying the process. MPs and the public will need time to understand how the new forecasts impact emissions, noise and the sustainability appraisal of the project.

“These address fundamental questions about the project’s viability and have been provided at a late stage in the process.”

A Heathrow spokesman said: “The consultation launched today is a key milestone in developing the airports NPS (National Policy Statement) which will strengthen the policy framework for expanding Heathrow.

“The forecasts show expanding Heathrow, the UK’s only hub airport, is even more important than previously realised.

“A third runway will ensure Britain’s place in the world as an outward looking trading nation. That’s why the government has committed to a final vote on expansion in the first half of 2018.”

The airport hopes to begin construction in early 2021, with the runway completed by the end of 2025.

The history of the airport is a history of our century, a history of modernity and urbanism. Of flight and light and speed. A history of future.

During the last three decades, the popular image of the airport has altered considerably. Less the glamorous way station of an earlier romantic air age and more the functional hubs of an era of mass air travel, airports are now an established part of our contemporary physical and cultural landscape. So physically used by the massive escalating number of people, as to be virtually anonymous.

But if we look more closely, airports take on a more interesting aspect: most notably for the way in which they seem to encapsulate so much of the texture of modern existence. Harbingers of increasing globalisation, temples to the gods of mammon, progress and speed. Symbols of a new found personal freedom and mobility. These airports are both launching pads and meeting points for many of the cultural and technological forces in which we live today.